Hello everyone,
Having discovered a frugal fiber and then the content of MPs book recently. I decided to join you in order to learn more about many subjects such as finance or daily tips.
You can call me Jo, I am 29 years old, I am a man, I am married and hold a C permit and I have a permanent contract.
My wife still has the B permit, but next year she should receive the C permit.
Although she is qualified,She is currently hired as a temporary worker, and she has a series of periods of work and downtime. She is therefore the manager of the savings.
I’m native French speaker, so please forgive me my mistakes in English. I live in Switzerland in canton de Vaud.
To be frugal is not a goal for me, the most important
is to ensure a life without major difficulties for my family.The second thing is to be able to have a comfortable retirement.
So: At the end of 2023 I started investing 250- per month on the global100% strategy of Viac
I reduced mandatory expenses such as phone and internet subscriptions
I try to get a good salary increase every year.
For the year:
2019: 48308-
2020: 57437-
2021: 63568-
2022 (new job): 66087- +2260 -bonus
2023: 66300 + 4950 - bonus
I work as a production operator and I am quite satisfied with my salary for my age.
However my diploma is foreign and not recognized in Switzerland, I am looking to start training as soon as my finances are stabilized.
Thank you for reading, and nice to meet you!
Joak
11 Likes
If you continue on this path, you will definitely achieve your goals. Starting to do something is already the biggest step.
Maybe one day you can sing “this girl is on fire” … not FIRE 
All the best.
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This sounds like 3rd pillar. Right?
Why did you choose 3a instead of normal brokerage?
Was it better for your taxes?
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Assuming she has “only” CHF 250.- to invest every month, wouldn’t it be better to max out her Pillar 3a first to reduce her taxable income and save on taxes? Or is the oppurtinity cost of not investing in an ETF worse than investing into the Pillar 3a?
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Congrats on taking your finances more serious now. I am also relatively new on this journey. Just to make sure, before you start investing and the like, do you have an emergency fund?
For me personally it helped a lot knowing I have X amount of CHF. In my savings account just in case there is a big emergency. This way I did not feel any pressure of investing my money somewhere else and it potentially being locked out for a while.
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I was thinking the following, the main advantage of 3a is tax reduction. Isn’t it? If you cannot get tax deduction due to overall marginal rate, then maybe it is worse to add money to 3a (instead of taxable account) because there would still be exit tax at the time of withdrawal and higher fees annually.
I am not sure if Jo is paying Quellensteuer or filling tax declaration. This is why I asked if this decision was based on tax advantages.
Comparison would be between VIAC Global 100 vs. Global strategy at IBKR. I will do some calculation to be sure I am making sense
5 Likes
Thank you all for your messages,
I actually created a Viac account for the tax advantage, but also to start saving on a regular basis.
IBKR seems to be very interesting, I thought I would be interested in it the day I managed to invest the entire regulatory amount on the 3rd pillar.
Although IBKR still seems a little complicated to me (especially for the tax declaration, to be honest).
I just noticed forgot to mention that:
I am a man, I am married and hold a C permit and I have a permanent contract.
My wife still has the B permit, but next year she should receive the C permit.
Although she is qualified,She is currently hired as a temporary worker, and she has a series of periods of work and downtime. She is therefore the manager of the savings ( around 20 000- now)
her contract is supposed to end in June.
So I think we are OK for the emergency fund,
Regarding the 3rd pillar:
-I will be able to save a maximum of 250- from July 1.
-It will allow us to buy a house once we retire or to ensure a more peaceful retirement.
Reading your messages encourages me to try to become the best version of myself. 
7 Likes
Welcome and congratulations on regularly managing to score a salary increase and putting money aside.
When it comes to investing, a good mindset to have is that good enough is good enough and that further optimizations can happen down the line. If VIAC works for you for now, it’s fine. It gets you accustomed to having stocks assets and to see how they fluctuate and what impact that has on you. As long as you have sufficient liquidity outside of 3a to handle life’s unexpected events, it’s fine.
IBKR is probably the most optimized way to handle investing as a Swiss domiciled investor (caveats may apply depending on your nationality and foreign tax status). Using a single globally diversified ETF (for example VT) makes it not that much of a tax hassle (it’s a one line item). Filing the paper forms to get the withholding tax back is optional (but highly advised, you are entitled to that money).
If IBKR seems too complex or not user friendly enough for you, Neon or Yuh should (I’ve never actually used them so have no first hand knowledge) provide an experience kind of similar to VIAC. They’re more expensive solutions than IBKR but not success alteringly so.
Given your income and your wife’s temporary working situation, it is possible that the tax savings don’t warrant the higher fees of 3a investing. It is also possible that it does. The easiest way to assess that is to calculate your marginal tax rate and provide the number here, chances are some numbers nerd will pass by and comment on it.
Assuming that you file a tax declaration and are not taxed at source, you can assess your marginal tax rate by using the calculator from the Federal Tax Administration (FTA) twice: once with your taxable income and once with your taxable income +1000. The difference in taxes due divided by 1000 is your marginal tax rate.
FTA calculator: Tax calculator: Calculate and compare taxes | FTA
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I will try to understand as best as possible how IBKR works over the next few days.
Thank you very much for your valuable advice, resources and support!